Laura Jane Grace, transgender lead singer of punk rock bank Against Me!, set fire to her birth certificate during a concert Sunday at the Motorco Music Hall in Durham, North Carolina to protest the state’s recent passage of its so-called transgender “bathroom” law.

Grace’s on-stage spectacle and Against Me!’s performance was in protest of North Carolina’s HB2, which mandates that men and women use the public restroom in accordance to the sex assigned to them at birth.

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“The way you affect change is by empowering the grassroots movement” is “by empowering the people,” Grace, who came out as transgender in 2012, shouted at the crowd.

Against Me! previously announced the decision to turn their May 15 concert in North Carolina into a protest performance last month.

It was suggested to me in an interview that we might cancel our May 15th show in Durham, NC because of the states HB2 bill. Hell no! (1/2)

Grace reaffirmed the band’s decision to play North Carolina in an interview with Buzzfeed.

“I think the real danger with HB2 is that it creates a target on transgender people specifically,” Grace told the website. “When you feel targeted as a trans person, the natural inclination is to go into hiding. But visibility is more important than ever; to go there and have the platform of a stage to stand on and speak your mind and represent yourself.”

“You know, there’s been a lot of focus on just the bathroom part of HB2, but one of the other huge parts is that it takes away a transgender person’s right to sue for discrimination on the state level and that is huge,” Grace toldThe Washington Post, in reference to one of the provisions in the law. “I mean, if someone else has the right to sue for discrimination and I don’t, how that is constitutional?”